Dangers of the Dance
by Higuchimon
Summary: [one-shot, Yu-Gi-Oh Pairings Challenge, Season 8, Round 16, Keith x Anzu/Anzu x Keith, Startleshipping] Keith has targeted Anzu as the medium of his revenge on Jounouchi and Yuugi. Unfortunately for him, he forgot to do all of his research.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.  
><strong>Fandom:<strong> Yu-Gi-Oh  
><strong>Title:<strong> Dangers of the Dance  
><strong>Romance:<strong> Bandit Keith x Anzu (also a little Anzu x Atem and Anzu x Yuugi)  
><strong>Word Count:<strong> 2,646  
><strong>Genre:<strong> Drama||**Rated:** R  
><strong>Challenge:<strong> Yu-gi-Oh Pairings: Season Eight: Round Sixteen  
><strong>Notes:<strong> This takes place a couple of months after the Ceremonial Duel.  
><strong>Warnings:<strong> Abduction, molestation, attempted assault/rape, violence.  
><strong>Feedback:<strong> All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Keith has targeted Anzu as the medium of his revenge on Jounouchi and Yuugi. Unfortunately for him, he forgot to do all of his research.

* * *

><p>Keith tied the blindfold too tight for her to see anything. Nevertheless, she could hear him breathing right behind her neck. Hot, damp hands traced across her cheek and she whipped her head around in a vain attempt to get away from him. Her heart raced as she felt her hair smacking against his hands. A moment later, she cried out, the sound muffled as she kicked forward when he grabbed hold of her hair and yanked backward.<p>

"Watch it, girlie," Keith hissed in her ear. "Remember who's in charge around here."

She wanted to tell him to drop dead. To go to hell. But for all that she wanted to, there was no way to scream at him. The gag he'd tied around her mouth fit too snugly for her to do anything.

His hands moved up and down her shoulders in a grotesque parody of a massage. "So tense, baby. You need to relax." His thick chuckle sent her stomach churning. "You ain't got nothing to worry about here."

Did he really think she was that stupid? She struggled harder, her words choked off by the gag, but to very little avail. He'd pulled her arms behind her, bound her wrists and ankles together, then bound ropes around her chest tying her to the chair she was in. He'd done most of that before she'd even woken up. Her feet skittered on the floor, hardly able to give her much purchase the way he'd tied them together.

In other words, he'd done everything he could to make sure that she couldn't fight back. Anzu did her level best to ignore the way his hands moved up and down on her shoulders and back. She didn't want to convince herself she was asleep; that would just turn all of this into a nightmare. She wanted to think it wasn't happening at all. She wanted to be back at dance class, rehearsing, putting all of her training to use once again. Being here was somewhere at the very bottom of her list of 'where I want to be tonight'. If it made the list at all.

His hands put her in mind of someone else, someone she hadn't thought of in a long time. She'd never found out his name, but she didn't need to. Prisoner 777, whose smelly arm had tightened around her, cutting off her air, terrifying her just by being there.

_I hear when humans can't see, they're so terrified they can't make a sound. They do the same to prisoners right before they execute them. I should know, I'm on death row. _Freezing fear clamped fingers around her heart and throat once again.

Keith licked the outside of her ear and she kicked forward, meeting only air. He chuckled. "You're kinda tough, little girl. I like that."

Anzu wasn't certain what kept her stomach from unloading itself on the floor. Perhaps it was just the fact that none of it would've hit Keith.

He brushed his fingers through her hair again. "Bet you're wondering why I'm doing this." The first thought through Anzu's mind was more that she really didn't care. Keith couldn't read her mind and wouldn't have cared even if he could. "This is all cause of those stupid brats you call your friends."

Anzu rolled her eyes behind the blindfold as much as she could. What did any of her friends have to do with this? Once again, Keith didn't care what wanted or didn't want to know. "That little bastard Jounouchi beat me at Duelist Kingdom. No way he did that fairly." As if Keith ever cared about being fair. "That was why Pegasus…he did…" Keith's voice trailed off into an odd cross between fury and confusion. Anzu hoped he would stay like that and give her a chance to do something to get out of there.

Unfortunately, fate had other things to do tonight than listen to her. Keith's hand tightened in her hair once again. "And that snot Jounouchi wouldn't have been there at all if Yuugi hadn't brought him. So this is all Yuugi's fault."

Anzu bit into the cloth bound across her jaws as hard as she could. _Looks more to me like it's your fault and you don't want to admit it._ There wasn't any way for her to tell Keith that, even if there was a chance that he would've wanted to listen.

She drew her breath in as his hands roamed downward, sliding across the front of her shirt. She didn't know why he was taking his time like this. She'd always been of the opinion that jerks like this just…hit and run, so to speak.

As if hearing her thoughts (the concept of which sent a chill down her spine), Keith leaned against her ear once more. "You're gonna find out what a real man's like, girlie. Not that short little shrimp you hang out with." Anzu's cheeks burned at those words and she wasn't certain if it was because of the words themselves or the meaning he put behind them.

The last time she'd been anywhere in a position like this, Atem had been there to help her. To save her. Anzu shuddered and pulled herself as far from Keith as the ropes let her, which wasn't nearly enough. Being able to get out of here and move to Pluto would be a good start.

But again his hands roamed up and down her shirt. "You're going to love this. All the girls do." Keith laughed, a hideous sound made worse by how close he was to her. "You remember that blonde bimbo? She _really_loved it." Anzu was finding new and less interesting thoughts to not think with every passing moment.

Instead, she shook her head once again, wanting it made clear that she wanted nothing to do with this. A rush of cool air against her stomach was Keith's answer to that and she heard small items hitting the floor. _Buttons. Those were the buttons on my shirt._ Breathing was all but impossible all of a sudden. It was worse when his hand pressed flat on her stomach.

"You know, you've got some small hands." Anzu wished even more that he would drop dead. If he were going to do something, then do it and stop dragging everything out! "You probably can't do anything with them. Not like me." Oh, geez, could he just _shut up_?

At least he didn't wax lovingly about how much better his hands were than hers. She would've had to find a way to not just get out of this chair but also run through solid cement. _I think I'm glad that **I'm** not psychic right now._Seeing into Keith's mind would release what grip she had on sanity.

His hands brushed up her stomach and again she pulled away, heart skipping beats. This wasn't supposed to happen. This couldn't even _begin_ to happen. This hadn't ever gone this far any other time someone had held her captive like this. Whenever she'd been close to dying or worse than dying, Atem was there to put a stop to it.

_He's gone now._The words echoed through her mind with the finality of death. She'd seen it happen herself. The first and only time she'd ever seen Yuugi and the other Yuugi together in modern reality, and it had only been for the space of a duel.

_Yes. Don't think about this._ That was the best advice she could offer herself. Not thinking would get her through this. Thinking about it would make it far too real.

She shifted around as his hands roamed more, removing the last of the buttons on her shirt. _I wonder what Atem's doing now._ What did people do in the afterlife? Was she going to see him again or did people go to different afterlives? _I'd rather not find out any time soon. _Perhaps in another forty or fifty years. Or even sixty or seventy.

Keith's hands pressed against the side of her neck before one went up higher. She bit into the gag once again as the blindfold loosened, then fell off, showing her his face. _Can I get the blindfold back on?_

Her feet kicked against the floor once more, and something in the depths of her mind clicked. _Floor. I can move my feet around._ She'd done that before, but to no avail. Now she did it again, ignoring what else Keith was doing to her. _Myabe I can do something._ It wouldn't be easy but it would be a lot better than just sitting her. If she were right about this, then he wouldn't be able to do _anything_ else to her.

He had tied her feet to each other, but that was it. They weren't tied _to_ anything else. _He probably thinks that'll make it easier to…_She let her thoughts veer away from actually completing that sentence. Even with her growing conviction that it wouldn't happen, she didn't want to think about it. Why invite bad luck?

A smile touched across the edges of her lips. She couldn't be sure if anyone even knew she was missing, but that didn't matter right now. What mattered was that she was going to prove how much of an idiot Keith was and how wrong Prisoner 777 was now. _I was scared then. I'm not now._

Keith leaned back, sensing something different in her attitude, and grinned when he saw the look on her face. "Yeah, I knew you were gonna love it, baby. Told you, they all do. Heh, maybe next time we can have some fun with the bimbo. I'd love to see you two making out with each other."

Mouth. She was definitely going to hit him in the mouth. Hard. Blood would be involved.

He came down closer to her, his lips heading for hers, and Anzu didn't bother thinking anymore, but on a different level than she'd not thought before.

She braced her feet against the floor and pushed back as hard as she could, tipping the chair over. Keith had just enough time to realize she was trying something and grabbed for the chair arms. Anzu smiled again.

The Dark Spirit of the Millennium Ring would have been proud of that smile.

She kicked upward now, not caring if she hit the floor or not, and was rewarded not just by the sensation of her feet slamming into the soft portions of his body, but by the high-pitched squeal that strangled its way out of his throat. He staggered back, hands clawing for support from anything he could touch, which turned out to be the wall a few feet away. She barely had time to notice that much, since the chair hit the floor seconds after she hit him.

"You bitch!" His voice had to be at least an octave higher than it was. Anzu didn't care about the details. Getting out of there rang higher on her scale of important events. Landing on the floor drove the breath out of her for a few seconds, but she managed to squirm up to her feet. Standing wasn't easy, not with her ankles tied together, but the kick and the fall had loosened those bonds just a little. She hopped backward until she found another wall she could brace herself against, one with a convenient door in it. She wrapped her hands around the knob (not surprised at all to find it locked) and kicked forward again, this time wanting to get the ropes a little looser.

Keith started toward her and she braced herself again, putting all of her strength behind this kick. It landed in his stomach, knocking him backward, and loosening the ropes at the same time. Her grip on the knob kept her from falling and she grinned to herself, shaking her head and rubbing it against the door until the gag loosened.

"My hands aren't what you need to worry about, Keith." Anzu balanced herself again, bringing all of her dance training to mind. She had to center herself, focus, or the move would go wrong. She couldn't afford that right now. This was the most important performance of her life.

He charged her again and this time, the ropes falling from around one ankle as she kicked upward, she slammed the heel of her foot into his mouth. "That one was for Mai!" She turned now, better balanced with her feet free, and drove her other foot into his stomach. "And that's for the idea of you _watching _anything!"

Keith staggered, eyes crossing, and collapsed to the floor, just as the knob behind her began to turn. She whirled to face it, not sure if he had friends or helpers with him or not, and started to look for the knife that he'd been using earlier. She could use it to get the rest of those ropes off her…

The door slammed inward and a great shout preceded the five figures that filled it. "All right, Keith, this time I'm gonna drop you off a cliff myself!" Jounouchi was the first one through the door, fists clenched. He took two steps in, stopped, and stared. "Um…"

Yuugi, Honda, Otogi, and Bakura made their way through the door, looking in every conceivable direction. Yuugi spied her first and his eyes lit up when he did. "Anzu! You're all right!"

Jounouchi's head snapped around toward her just as Keith started to stir. She reacted without thinking, taking two quick steps toward him and slamming one foot on his back. "Stay down!" She didn't want to keep having to do this.

"Um…we came to save you?" Yuugi said after a few moments of silence. He rubbed the back of his neck and grinned a little. "We were supposed to go for sodas after your lesson, remember? I got worried when you were late."

Anzu nodded; she'd been too busy trying not to think of what Keith was doing to think of much else. She also couldn't help a small grin. "If you still want to save me, I suppose I could sit back down."

Jounouchi shook his head, a twisted grin darting across his lips. "No, no, I don't think you need to do that." He paused for a moment. "But if you want to keep going, could you wait for about five minutes? I want to get popcorn."

"I think I'd rather go get those sodas." Anzu declared. She shrugged some, trying to bring attention to the ropes still binding her chest and arms. "But if someone could get me out of these first, I'll pay for theirs."

"Why should you?" Honda stood up from where he'd been checking Keith out and held up a battered wallet. "He's got enough in here for all of us."

Anzu opened her mouth, wanting to say that she didn't want to take anything of his. She closed her mouth when she realized that her blouse gaped open and Yuugi was in the process of turning red and trying hard not to stare at her. As Jounouchi cut the ropes off her, she held her blouse closer to her, until Otogi pulled off his jacket and offered it. "Thanks. Uh, can we stop by my place before we get the sodas? I need to change." And shower at least twice.

"You know, Anzu, you're pretty tough." Honda told her as they headed out the door. She grinned, tugging Otogi's jacket around her as she did. That kind of praise from Honda warmed her soul. "How'd you do that, anyway?"

"Would you like all the technical terms or should I just remind you that I'm a dancer?" Perhaps later she would remember fear and frustration, terror and shock. Right now, wrapped in the comfort of her friends, Anzu's heart soared.

**The End**


End file.
